Martinez on Robles, Hellickson, Eaton and weather delays

In light of the miserable weather all weekend, and the fact that Nationals right fielder Adam Eaton is returning this season from a major knee injury, makes for a good reason to not have him in today's starting lineup.

Manager Davey Martinez said Eaton is fine health-wise, and he just wanted to give the veteran a day of rest.

"Yeah, just giving him a (day)," Martinez said. "He's a veteran guy been playing his tail off. This weather ... it takes him awhile to get loose. I told him yesterday he was going to play and I came in here this morning and I decided, you know what? Just let it be as is. We got some young kids up here and I want to see them play too, so. But he's good, he's all good. He's going to play all next week."

The weather has wreaked havoc with the game schedules and the lineup decision-making. What has Martinez done to keep everyone on the same page and focused with all the delays and starts and stops?eaton

"The best way I could describe it is perseverance," Martinez said. "Like I said yesterday, for those guys to sit there all day (and) rain, not rain, rain, not rain, we're going to play, we're not going to play and then go out there and do what they do? It's a testament to what kind of team we have and I'm proud of them. They came out yesterday and they were fired up and they decided, hey, if we're here we're going to win so let's win.

"So, for us to go back out and play the last inning and go out and do what they did and have (Greg) Holland sit around and come back do what he did was awesome. (Sean) Doolittle comes in in the eighth inning and watch him stand and hold his hands up start drinking rain (laughs) that was pretty awesome too."

With Eaton out, Martinez slotted Victor Robles into the starting lineup as the lead-off center fielder.

"I talked to him ... just be yourself," Martinez said. "Work good counts. Just get on base and have fun."

Trea Turner also gets the day off, so the at the top of the lineup today it is Robles and Anthony Rendon. How can Martinez best take advantage of Robles' speed? He feels like he needs to see Robles a few times before he will devise the best way to use the prospect's unique advantage on the bases.

"I'm trying to figure it out," Martinez said. "The sky is the limit with him. He's got potentially five tools. We've seen everything he can do. We'll see where he ends up but if he can get on base it'd be nice to have him up there."

Another update for starter Jeremy Hellickson. His next simulated game planned for the upcoming road trip:

"He's going to throw another simulated game get up to about 80 pitches and then we'll decide what we're going to do," Martinez said. "One day in Philly, we'll see what the rain does."